WestJet Airlines reports lower profit compared to a year ago as costs escalate

WestJet's cost per available seat mile rose 5.5 per cent to 13.57 cents, up from 12.86 cents in the fourth quarter of 2016

WestJet says it earned $48.5 million or 42 cents per diluted share for the last three months of 2017, down from a profit of $55.2 million or 47 cents per diluted share a year earlier.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 42 cents per share and revenue of $1.11 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

The results came as WestJet’s cost per available seat mile rose 5.5 per cent to 13.57 cents, up from 12.86 cents in the fourth quarter of 2016. Excluding the cost of fuel and employee profit sharing, the cost per available seat mile increased 3.6 per cent to 10.23 cents compared with 9.87 cents a year earlier.

WestJet grew capacity measured by available seat miles by 5.6 per cent compared with a year earlier, while traffic measured by revenue passenger miles climbed 8.8 per cent.